Family loss / gain

Theresa Burwick Kristin Williams

Today I (Theresa) stood in a time of praise and worship with several hundred other women. One arm was around my daughter and the other was lifted to the Lord in praise and thanksgiving. I was taken back to another time over 20 years ago. Another time of worship. That time one arm was around my daughter and the other was around my son. It was Mother’s Day weekend. I had traveled to another town to be with them, and they had taken me to an Imperials’ concert. The words to one of the songs poured over me: “When you’re up against a struggle that shatters all your dreams, and your hopes have been cruelly crushed by satan’s manifested schemes….praise the Lord, God can work through those who praise Him….
Several months before, my children had gone to live with their father. I was left alone in the angry, abusive atmosphere that they were fleeing. And they were plunged into a life with a father who loved them, but who devoted much of his energy to filling his God-shaped vacuum with alcohol and drugs. Years before he had first left seminary and preparations for the mission field, and then left God entirely. And then left his family.

I stood in that concert with my arms around my precious teenage children. I had lost their father, a grief story for another time. And now I had lost them – lost the opportunity to live with them, to see them daily, to hopefully influence them in the ways of the Lord. Indeed, my dreams were shattered and my hopes cruelly crushed – again. During the weeks between their departure and Mother’s Day, life had become very simple: God became my life support. As I focused on Him, He gave me the strength to live from one moment to the next. And as I stood there with my arms around them, I praised Him, and begged Him to keep them safe from satan’s schemes. I told satan that he could not have them. I prayed for them every way I knew to pray. And I knew God was there with us.

What have I gained from that time of loss? A profound gratitude that my children walk with the Lord. That my precious grandchildren love the Lord. I learned that when life swirls around me with the force of a deadly hurricane, stripping away much of what I hold dear, God is still there. When He said that He would never leave me, He meant it. And He is enough!
Theresa Burwick